With 60% of the average person’s waking hours spent in work, our workplaces are one of the most important places where we can take action to improve our wellbeing. Livewell Southwest’s Wellbeing at Work team is passionate about helping you to support your staff and ensure that they are a healthy, happy workforce, and one of the ways we do this is through our Wellbeing Champions.
Forming an essential part of our Wellbeing at Work programme, a Wellbeing Champion is someone who can make a difference to people’s health in the workplace by inspiring them to make positive healthy lifestyle changes, creating ‘good days at work’ to promote mental health and wellbeing, and helping others to feel valued and supported.
But who supports the Wellbeing Champions? That would be where Charley Roberts, Health Improvement Advisor for the Wellbeing Team, comes in.
As Wellbeing Champion Advisor, Charley’s role includes being a point of contact for all Wellbeing Champions, providing support and networking opportunities, and ideas to inspire.
Charley said: “Once someone has completed their Wellbeing Champion training, I give them six weeks to get back into normal life and see how their new role compliments the one they already hold at work. Once that six weeks is up I make contact to see how things have been playing out for them.
“We take a look at the action plans they created during their training and I help them to implement their ideas as well as linking them up with other Wellbeing Champions so that it feels like a team effort. I then stay on board, making myself available whenever needed to help them where they’re struggling, answer questions, and act as a sounding board for new ideas.
“A good Wellbeing Champion isn’t necessarily a fitness freak or a healthy eater, what we’re looking for is someone with a general interest in health and wellbeing who is passionate about making a difference for their team.
“We now have lots of organisations across Plymouth signed up to our Wellbeing at Work programme, and a growing pool of Wellbeing Champions within each of those organisations, and we’re hoping that this will continue to grow. We’re currently looking at developing the resource packs we provide to Wellbeing Champions to include things like Going Home Checklists and Useful Contacts and we’re also looking to set up some more communication networks where Wellbeing Champions can talk to one another, share ideas and best practice, help one another to overcome any barriers and share any activities that their teams have been taking part in to inspire one another.
“If anyone has a genuine interest in health and wellbeing and is interested in becoming a Wellbeing Champion, they can book their one day training via this link. I’m also happy to speak to anyone should they want more information or simply want to share some of their own ideas – we welcome these from anyone across the organisation. I can be contacted on 01752 437177 or by emailing [email protected].”
Nita Dodd, Wellbeing Champion Lead, said: “Since joining the team, Charley has really embraced the Wellbeing Champion Advisor role and taken the programme to a whole new level, whereby Wellbeing Champions are followed up after their training and supported through workplace visits and regular emails.
“Charley plays an important role in arranging the Wellbeing at Work quarterly forums, and has been busy supporting with the preparation of the Wellbeing at Work Annual Update and Award event on 29 January at Boringdon Golf Club.
“We’ve also recently received the new Wellbeing Champion pin badges, so please contact Charley if you have undertaken the Wellbeing Champion training in the last two years and would like to take ownership of your new badge.”
